3.5* John Ascuaga's Nugget Casino Sparks 5/10-5/17 $47

My initial research on this post revealed that the lowest advertised price for the Nugget (the only 3.5 in Sparks) was $65.43 per night. There was an Express Deal for the same property for $47.

Truly free rebid zones included Reno North and Reno West. Quasi-free rebid zones included Reno South, Central, and Downtown (all 3.5 or 4* hotels in these zones were substantially higher than the Nugget for the same time period, thus "quazi-free rebid zones").

I used permutations (discussed here) to build a bidding matrix which let me bid up in $1 increments from $30 to 46, $1 below the Express Deal. I restarted each bid by going back to BFT and clicking on the link. At $34 and from there on I got an "if you add this much (matching the Priceline posted retail price) we can get you this room right now," which I politely declined.

I noticed as I was getting closer to the Express Bid number that something was looking a little different. So when I hit $46, on a hunch, I went into Priceline, and clicked on the Express Bid for the Nugget to see the total amount of the cost of the reservation, which was going to be $477.40. I closed my window, went back to BFT to click the link, then started a new Name Your Own Price (NYOP) bid at $47, and the total came out to $463.72. I clicked OK, and as expected, the $47 bid was accepted.

Looking at the Express Deal bid and the NYOP bid, the only difference was that on the NYOP bid, I was given a "Hotel Fee Credit" of $12 that was deducted from the final bid amount. Now I realize that $12 isn't a reason for a party, it is still interesting that using NYOP got an extra discount that Express Deals did not.

Yeah. Something else that I did not know until after I had done the bid was that if I had come in to Priceline through the "front door" I would have known that for stays exceeding 2 nights that they were offering an additional 10% off through a special promo. Just another lesson on making sure one is current on all the latest discounts and specials that Priceline is offering, especially when NYOP is not working so well. The trip was pretty imminent, so I didn't want to risk waiting until I got closer and not getting the room at all.